title: The use of stem cells for the repair of cardiac tissue in ischemic heart disease.
abstract: Ischemic heart diseases are the leading cause of death in the Western world. With increasing numbers of patients surviving their acute myocardial infarction owing to effective heart catheter techniques and intensive care treatment, congestive heart failure has become an increasing health concern. With therapeutic options for the prevention and treatment of ischemic heart disease being limited at present, huge efforts have been made in the field of stem cell research to try to establish new approaches for myocardial tissue regeneration. Owing to their pronounced differentiation potential, pluripotent stem cells seem to represent the most promising cell source for future engineering of myocardial replacement tissue. However, several crucial hurdles regarding cell yield and purity of the cultured cardiovascular progenitor cells have still not been overcome to facilitate a clinical application today. By contrast, plenty of adult stem and progenitor cells have already been well characterized and investigated in human disease. However, all of these heterogeneous cell lines primarily seem to work in a paracrine manner on ischemic myocardial tissue, rather than transdifferentiating into contractile cardiomyocytes. This article will focus on the production, application and present limitations of stem cells potentially applicable for myocardial repair.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine I, Munich University Hospital, Campus Grosshadern, Marchioninistr. 15, 81377 Munich, Germany.
authors.forename: Christoph
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Brenner
authors.forename: Wolfgang-M
authors.initials: WM
authors.lastname: Franz
mesh_terms: D053687:Adult Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology / Q000637:transplantation; D001854:Bone Marrow Cells / Q000166:cytology; D002460:Cell Line; D006801:Humans; D017202:Myocardial Ischemia / Q000473:pathology* / Q000628:therapy*; D009206:Myocardium / Q000473:pathology*; D039904:Pluripotent Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology / Q000637:transplantation; D033581:Stem Cell Transplantation; D013234:Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology*; D023822:Tissue Engineering; D014945:Wound Healing